> You can get (and pretty cheaply...) DVI to HDMI cables.
> This solves the problem of searching for reasonably priced graphics
> cards with a HDMI conector.
> I use a 5m one to connect my Macbook to the Camera Clubs 1080p projector.
>
> That said, the next generation of eeeBox (B204/B206) is supposedly going
> to have a HDMI connector. One of these should do very nicely as a Media
> Centre. They were announced in late November so we may start to see them
> soon. btw, they are going to have an Nvidia GPU rather than the somewhat
> problematical Intel one. I intend to get one to use at the core of my
> MediaCentre setup.
>
> Stephen D
The big problem with just using a DVI -> HDMI converter is that you don't
get audio. The main reason for wanting HDMI is to have audio and video
down the same cable rather than having to run 2.
I have found this card:
http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=95
Which is fanless - yay - and comes with a spdif cable to connect to get
audio included. Apparently this now works with the latest versions of ALSA
if you use the nvidia binary driver.
In researching and asking elsewhere was also told about VDPAU which is
also available on the card I've linked above, apparently this allows
offloading of h.264 decoding, deinterlacing, OSD effects etc. the same as
PureVideoHD has for ages on windows. Apparently the latest xine and ffmpeg
support this too.
In theory (according to phoronix) this would allow HD playback using a
very low end processor (they tested AMD Sempron LE-1150 and an 8400GS):
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_vdpau_gpu&num=1
So things are looking up, I will do some more research to be 100% certain
the audio thing works, but looks like it is possible, and I might be able
to get HD playback out of my existing system (which is an LE1100) simply
by purchasing a £42 graphics card - very happy :)
